Every year, dozens of workers die and thousands more become ill while working in hot or humid conditions. OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention campaign educates employers and workers on heat hazards and provides resources to keep workers safe.
Employers have a duty to protect workers against heat. Employers have a legal and moral responsibility not to assign work in high-heat conditions without protections in place for workers, where they could be literally worked to death. To accomplish this, OSHA recommends creating a heat plan to advise employers and workers on the effects of working in heat.
Heat-related illness can affect workers in many industries, at indoor or outdoor worksites. Some job-related risk factors include:
■ Outdoor work in warm weather
■ Heat sources such as fires or hot tar
■ Strenuous physical activity
■ Heavy or non-breathable work clothes.
When these (or other) heat hazards are present, employers should plan ahead to protect workers.
Employers should create a written plan to prevent heat-related illness. Use the tools on OSHA’s website,
www.osha.gov/heat to assist. Important elements to consider when creating the heat plan are:
■ Who will provide oversight on a daily basis?
■ How will new workers gradually develop heat tolerance?
■ Temporary workers may be more susceptible to heat and require closer supervision.
■ Workers returning from extended leave (typically defined as more than two weeks) may also be at an increased risk.
■ How will the employer ensure that first aid is adequate and the protocol for summoning medical assistance in situations beyond first-aid is effective?
■ What engineering controls and work practices will be used to reduce heat stress?
■ How will heat stress be measured?
■ How to respond when the National Weather Service issues a heat advisory or heat warning?
■ How will we determine if the total heat stress is hazardous?
■ What training will be provided for workers and supervisors?
Heat conditions can change rapidly and management commitment to adjusting heat stress controls is critical to prevent heat illness. An individual at the jobsite should be responsible for monitoring conditions and implementing the employer’s heat plan throughout the workday. This individual can be a foreman, jobsite supervisor, plant manager, safety director or anyone else with the proper training that includes knowing how to:
■ Identify and control heat hazards
■ Recognize early symptoms of heat stress
■ Administer first aid for heat-related illnesses
■ Activate emergency medical services quickly when needed.
Ideally, the individual who is responsible for the heat plan should be onsite, where the workers are. Onsite monitoring allows accurate determination of heat stress. In some industries with a widely distributed workforce, onsite monitoring might not be feasible. In those cases, the responsible individual at the site should be fully trained on the means and methods to contact and report to the employer any adverse heat related conditions that may develop on the site as well as any signs and symptoms of heat-related illness experienced by any of the workers. The responsible individual in a central location should gauge heat stress using the best available methods for remote estimation. OSHA’s website provides webinars, tools, apps, resources, downloadable documents and detailed information for employers to create an essential heat plan.
OSHA’s Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings proposed rule has been published in the Federal Register and is now available for viewing at www.floridaroof.com/osha-heat-proposal. OSHA encourages the public to submit comments to the Heat Injury and Illness Prevention rulemaking docket at www.floridaroof.com/osha-heat-comments. The comment period is open until December 30, 2024. Additional information on OSHA’s rulemaking process and how stakeholders can participate is available at
www.floridaroof.com/osha-process.
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